RVing With a Purpose

Vermont Disaster Rebuild – Our Week 1

Sunday, July 20, 2025

We arrived at Covenant Hills Christian Camp, outside of Cabot, VT, on 7/11 to start our weeks on the NOMADS Disaster Rebuild project here. We were met by Herman and Janis and shown the RV sites. It’s so good to be working with them again. After doing all the things required to get Fred set up, we sat down for a late lunch and took time to look out the window for the first time. Wow! What a beautiful setting we will enjoy for the next six weeks. We are at the top of a hill looking out across a valley toward some tall, beautiful mountains. It is such a quiet and peaceful place. Cell service isn’t great depending on your carrier so sometimes you need to go inside the dining room if you need to do some online work, but Starlink works fine. Depending on which roads you take, it’s around 6 miles to Cabot from the camp.

On Saturday, we were glad to welcome Jean and Larry to the camp and later that afternoon we got to welcome our final team member, Jayne. We have previously worked with all 5 of our team members and they are all leaders, so we knew this week would be great. Sunday the team all went to church together and ate lunch at Wayside Restaurant and had our opening meeting Sunday afternoon.

Monday we all went to Sally’s house, about 25 minutes from camp, to continue the work on her flood damaged home – damage from the 2024 flood. We were blessed to have Herman and Janis with us to fill us in on all the work up to now. NOMADS raised the trailer 8 inches and replaced/repaired the underbelly of the trailer as well as installing the underpinning in previous weeks. This is actually the seventh week of the NOMADS project here. Our team completed the last of the outside work and began on the inside work. Monday, we began installing subflooring and drywall throughout the house. We also worked on finishing the drywall. We will continue this work next week.

Herman working on building an access door in the underpinning

Janis finishing the drywall on a difficult corner

Hall drywall and flooring at the end of the week

The kitchen drywall and floor at the end of the week

On Wednesday Max and Herman began working on Rosa’s house. Rosa’s house needs a new skylight installed and some roofing replaced. Jayne joined them on Thursday. They have removed the rotten wood, replaced the decking and have begun the installation of the new roof to keep it dry for the weekend. Next week we will replace the skylight and repair the damaged drywall inside.

Herman and Jayne removing the old decking

Jayne and Herman installing the “ice and water” underlayment

It was an extremely hot week by Vermont standers, with temperatures and humidity well above normal most days (upper 90’s heat index) so we had to take some extra breaks and work to stay hydrated. The first part of next week is predicted to be much better with high temperatures in the 70s – nice. After the hard, hot week, the team stopped on the way back to camp Thursday night at a pizza restaurant – Pizza Man. It just happened to have an ice cream parlor in its back yard. It was a nice ending to a busy work week. Friday was laundry day since we hadn’t done laundry since leaving SC so no fun excursions yet – maybe next week.

Quick Catch-up

Saturday, July 12, 2025

We have been really busy since our last post. These are the states we have traveled to or through since then: SC-NC-TN-KY-OH-IN-OH-KY-TN-NC-SC-NC-VA-WV-DE-PA-NY-VT.

We drove back to SC on Saturday after the close of our portion of the 2025 Constructors for Christ build. Sunday we packed BB for a quick trip to Middlebury, IN to have the glass that was broken by the mentally ill man in California repaired. We left South Carolina Monday morning, over-nighted at a Cracker Barrel in Shelbyville, IN, across the street from a Culver’s. Yes, we had ice cream for supper and Cracker Barrel for breakfast Tuesday morning. We arrived at the Coachman campground in Middlebury Tuesday afternoon. Several friends were also in the campground after they attended the Coachman rally, and we were so pleased to have time to visit with them. Wednesday morning right on time, our service guys, Paul and Jake picked up BB. They were finished by lunch! They did a great job and even cleaned off all the black tape we had put on the side of BB. We cannot say enough about the great care and service we receive from Coachman. When we have a problem, they are always extremely responsive and have us back on the road in short order. Nick and his entire crew are the BEST!

On the way to Middlebury we drove though this town and wondered why it was called Turtle Town, USA. You might want to Google that. We found it pretty interesting.

We picked up BB, and began our drive back to SC. On the way we stopped back by East Barbourville Baptist Church to see all the progress the Week 2 crew had made. We made it back to South Carolina on Friday, June 27th.

One of the reasons we stopped back by Barbourville was to see one of our friends who was not there on Week 1

They were making progress on the new building

And the Week 2 crew had all the interior walls framed and most of the electrical roughed in.

The front porch is being enclosed to make 2 more classrooms.

We had about a week to get ready to leave for Vermont for a disaster rebuild project so Anne and Debra decided they would use the time to visit the farmer’s market. We have some really good food in the freezer to enjoy this winter.

There were two boxes of peaches waiting when we returned from Indiana

The bushel of corn ready for the freezer

We don’t really like to be on the road on the 4^th of July so we waited to leave for Vermont until all those festivities we over. We took a more leisurely trip this time, stopping in Roanoke for a day of sightseeing and checking out the build site for next year’s Constructors for Christ project.

We also checked out Dixie Caverns Campground as a possible place to stay for the project.

One of the sites we visited in Roanoke was the famous Roanoke Star. We wanted to see it because of our family’s involvement in building and maintaining a large lighted star on the side of Pine Mountain in Remlap, Alabama.

While at the Star we decided to visit the little zoo there.

The last zoo we visited had a Red Panda, but it stayed hidden the whole time we were there. We were glad this one was not as shy.

This giant tortoise kept trying to open the gate. We wondered why until one of the keepers told us they occasionally took it for walks around the zoo.

We then drove some short days with stops at some really nice Harvest Host locations. They were all quiet and peaceful, off the interstate locations. We really enjoy Harvest Hosts locations. We have made some good friends!

First Assembly of God Harvest Host site in PA

Winn Hill Farms Harvest Host in Port Crane, NY

Living Waters Church Harvest Host in Saratoga Springs, NY

We arrived at Cabot, Vermont about 2:30 Friday, 7/11/25. We will be spending the next six weeks working to repair homes and doing some sightseeing. We will bring you along to see what we are doing.

Constructors for Christ 2025 Project

As noted in our previous post, we arrived in Johnston, SC on June 8, giving us just four days to “rest”, do all the laundry, move everything back into FRED, get both of us haircuts, wash BB, and probably other things we have forgotten, and be ready to roll in FRED Friday morning June 13. Randy led the way for us to make a rather long, slow trip to Barbourville, KY. There is so much construction going on from Helene and now I-40 is closed again due to mud slides making for a hard drive. We arrived at our campground Friday afternoon in time to get set up and then go to the church to see the job site and meet up with friends. It was such a joy to see friends we haven’t seen since this time last year. This year Constructors for Christ summer project will have teams in Barbourville for five weeks. There will be people from over 17 churches from many states. This year is also the 50^th Anniversary of CFC. Fifty years of building churches, worship centers, and fellowship halls each summer. It is an honor to be a small part of this work. We have been with the group since 2015.

Our RV sites for this project were at Thompson RV Park in Barbourville. It is a very nice city owned park.

This map of Constructors for Christ projects was made for this year’s 50th Anniversary.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in – 7:00am – because we didn’t have to be at work until 9:00. Anne and Debra worked, along with some other ladies, moving cooking equipment from the trailer into the church and setting up the kitchen and doing some general cleanup, before everyone arrived on Sunday. Anne and Debra were also responsible for the merchandise table again this year so they spent a good deal of time working on that. Randy and Max along with some other guys began working in the old sanctuary, leveling the floor and readying the site for the rest of the crew. This year we actually have two job sites that are next to each other. The old sanctuary is being converted into classrooms, and the new sanctuary is being built next door. Unfortunately, due to way too much rain this spring, the concrete had not yet been poured nor the metal building erected for the new sanctuary. Sunday morning we worshiped with the members of East Barbourville Baptist . Such a welcoming community! We then returned to our campground to ready ourselves for a busy work week – gathering up tools etc. Sunday evening we had our opening meeting and were able to reconnect with more friends.

Reorganizing the kitchen equipment trailer

The church members had done a lot of work getting the old sanctuary ready for us.

The laser level was used to make sure the new floor would be flat and level.

Monday morning and every other morning we were on the job site working by 6:00am. We had breakfast at 7:30, Lunch at 12:30 and Dinner at 6:00 pm. All the job site work was in the old sanctuary this week. As always, we were very blessed to spent a week in service with our friends and family. God is good!

As always, each morning started with prayer.

It took several team members to get it all up.

The first pieces of sub-floor were at the door ramp.

Once the joists were finished the crew started on the rest of the sub-floor installation.

When not involved inside, the crew members cut studs …

In addition to a lot of sweat, some people left their blood on the project.

When the youngsters weren’t working they taught themselves new skills.

The last piece of sub-floor being installed

The sub-floor was finished Friday morning

Since we didn’t put up any walls this time we wrote scripture on the floor joists.

Anne and Debra worked with the kitchen crew preparing delicious meals. (This is only part of the kitchen crew.)

This year several boxes of peaches were brought for the crew.

Randy addressing the crew after our evening meal.

The great news is that the concrete for the new sanctuary was poured Friday and should be ready for the erection crew to begin work on Monday. That means that our CFC crew may be able to start work on the new sanctuary sometime next week.

The concrete contractors were already at work when we arrived Friday morning.

The contractors had a lot of finishing equipment.

On Friday we finished work a little early so we went with Randy and Debra to see Cumberland Falls. It was a nice break from work.

2025 Spring Road Trip – 3 New States in 3 Nights and More

Thursday, June 12, 2025

We left the Switch It Up Huddle in Roseburg, Oregon mid-morning on June 2^nd and started a quick cross-country trip. We only had a few days to get back to South Carolina to prepare for our next mission project. We did, however, deviate from the quickest route a little to add three new states to our RV’d in map. By dropping down to I-70 from I-80, we were able to pick up Nevada, Utah and Colorado and yes, we spent the night in all three.

This is what we saw for several slow miles shortly after we left Roseburg.

Our drive allowed us to see many more snow-capped mountains …

After driving in mountains the next section of the country looked really flat.

The Eisenhower Tunnel was the highest point on our route at 11,158 feet (3,401 meters) and is also the highest vehicular tunnel in the United States.

That route also made it possible for us to visit a few iconic tourist spots such as Diamond Lake in Oregon, Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and, of course, Buzzard Belly General Store in Cisco, Utah.